while i think they were doing it largely to discredit elsburg, one of the explanationses that bud kroeg has given me who was this charge of getting the approvals was we were really worried from a national security basis what more elsburg might have that he would wleleak. he was sensitive that he not leak anything and he's an experienced intelligence officer, that he not leak anything that will show sources and methods. which are of course the most important things to protect for the intelligence community. so there are parallels to watergate. what is very worried to me with the amounts of money that are pouring back in lieu citizsi th citizens united because one of the ropes you have the kind of foolishness that happens is the after the money these guys have. if you have tight money, you don't get involved in these fishing expeditions. i've written at some length what they were looking for and it is a pure fishing expedition. to see what they can find. it's not a particularly well or sophisticated plot to go in there and look. they don't even find the target they're looking for until a

young lawyers on his team don't have the proper attitude toward discrediting elsburg. quote, these kids don't understand. they have no understanding of politics. john mitchell is that way. john hases always worried about, is it technically correct? did you think, for christ sake, that the "new york times" is worried about all the legal niceties? those sons of bitches are killing me. thank god i leak to the press -- referring to the h had iss controversy in the 1950s. this is what we've got to get. i want you to shake these -- it's unintelligible up in here. get them off their goddamn dead asses. we're up against an enemy, conspiracy. they're using any means. we are going to use any means. is that clear? i hope it's clear to all of you. because that's the end quote. commonly known as the plumbers were elected to carry out these break-ins. once this happened, nixon and his pen were ensnared in a criminal conspiracy. everyone involved in the elsburg break n if few something which could be of mortal danger to nixon and his top aides at the white house, because nixon had li

that hes the elsburg break-in to uncover what dan elsburg was doing by entering his psychiatrist office in beverly hills with hunt and liddy using the same people they had used at the watergate, and this goes right back not to the re-election committee. it goes right back to john ehrlichman and the white house, which is trouble sol. nixon hasn't been told about this, and he is really very surprised about it when i tell him about it. he would later say that, well, had i been told, i probably would have authorized it. had he had authorized it, he would have followed a national security proceeding. there's there's a way if you want to deal with the restrabints on th fourth amount, there's a procedure the attorney general must follow even in place in those days. and that was not a mysterious or unique situation. there was a way to do it. but it wasn't done. so i first realize he's not fully informed. and then when he's pushing me as i was talking earlier to write this bogus report, i realized i should tell him i'm not going to write a report that's bogus, but if i write a report, here's wha

to daniel elsburg's leaking of the pentagon papers to major newspapers, including "the new york times." ordered by robert mcnamara during the johnson administration. nixon ordered his aides to destroy elsburg's credibility and, by extension, the credibility the anti-war movement in the eyes of the public. they ped

bud was one of the so-called plumbers investigating leaks involved in the elsburg break-in, and he tells me that he thinks he has purgered himself in his confirmation hearings or when he appeared before the watergate grand jury to introduce material in the original pursuit to understand what had happened in the relationship of hunt and liddy to the white house. it's all fuzzy, but nixon's response was not fuzzy. he said, john, perjury is a tough rap. be difficult to prove. i go through a whole laundry list of things to try to turn him. i've listened the tape years later, and i just go silent. i'm stunned that i can't convince him of any of this, and at the end of it he still is suggesting i write a report or go visit with the cabinet and brief the cabinet, and, you know, i don't get that thinking, but one of the things that's emerging this time is he says, well, everybody should go to the grand jury. i think that's a great idea. the reason i thought it was a great idea, naively, i said if i go to the grand jury, first of all, it's sealed. it's quiet. we'll resolve this so the president c

that do it yourself attitude that was shown so fatal in the white house under liddy and hunt and the elsburg break-many is repeated in a much grander scale in the selling of arms to it's a more blat abbot violation directly out of the white house, and with -- if not more serious, then equal serious. what happens with water gate, it morphs into so much more than a bungled burglary by gordon lid where i. liddy, the level of incompetent is striking. gordon thinks at that period that his life is james bond. i view him and most who have looked at his work see him just a little bit worse and a little bit not quite up to the level of mark -- excuse me -- maximum maxwell smart. this is just really amateur hour stuff. it's not very sophisticated, but what happens is watergate morphs into much more. it morphs into the abuse of high office by nixon during the nixon presidency. it's the abuse of the campaign laws. it's the abuse of the power of the irs to use it to attack your enemies. these are something -- actually, these are the things that trouble me in many regards more than what has some color of

were involved in an earlier operation at the -- on behalf of the white house to break into daniel elsburg psychiatrist office. it was right there at that moment that i realize we have really big problems and i don't have a clue what to do with them. >> that was former white house council john dean. your comment and reaction. >> steve, john dean was a culpable actor in the watergate break-in and coverup. he's a malevolent actor where history is concerned. just image if sherman and grant after the civil war kept going on the mike douglas show and on the internet and wrote columns and unceasing stream of books all designed to portray themselves in a more favorable light and constantly muddying the waters along the way. that's essentially what john dean has done. last week he promised us he's now at work on a new work of nixon white house water gate tape transcripts. it is the most audacious efforts. i think he sees that he could exert further control over the narrative if he in fact prepares his own tape transcripts. in my book "the strong man," i identify john dean as the most likely candid

daniel elsburg with the pentagon papers was prosecuted under that. so it's very tough to get one of these convictions. >> nora o'donnell, thank you. good to see you. >> good to see you. >>> good morning, by the way. we have been reporting on the so-called fiscal cliff coming at the end of the year when major tax cuts are set to expire and $1.2 trillion in spending cuts would take effect. this morning, secret discussions are going to deal with the fiscal cliff. rebecca jarvis talked with economists and two legislators involved. good morning. >> good morning to you. cbs news has learned that this is a broad group of about 30 senators from both sides of the is aisle, and according to sources in the meetings it is not just those with so-called bases nearing retirement. there are even some freshmen senators participating. it began with a dinner. a senator who has been attending says there's no clear leader, calling it a coalition of the willing. insiders also tell me that the senators have been broken into working groups to address primary issues, includi

other leaks that went to anderson and, of course, the pentagon papers which were leaked by daniel elsburg to "the new york times," the leak of the united states fallback negotiating position at the arms control negotiations with the soviet union in july of 1971, nixon and his men felt they simply couldn't conduct government under those conditions and they were right about that. which is one of the reasons why we saw a profusion of wiretap -- national security wiretaps under president nixon but the wicksy leaks event takes that, magnifies that exponentially in sheer scale of the documents although it's interesting from all that came out of wikileaks and i didn't follow it to the letter but i don't recall, steve, and you correct me if i'm wrong that there was one giant story that came out of wikileaks other than the prosecution of the leaker or the suspected leaker. whereas in the nixon era leaks, you remember those leaks. the fallback negotiation for the talks, the systemic deception of the united states over the previous administrations of kennedy and johnson in the pentagon papers, these